Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Whitey Lied

That's Tweety Matthews' excuse for the difference between the blowhards and pollsters' predictions for the New Hampshire Democratic primary and the actual outcome. It couldn't possibly be that the pollsters and pundits don't know their asses from holes in the ground when it comes to Democratic politics. It's that thousands of caucasian Dems were afraid to admit, anonymously, to someone they'd never seen before (or ever) and would never see again that they weren't voting for the black man. Matthews supported this hesis by "quoting" that pidgin-speaking caricature of a Native American, Tonto, who (according to Tweety) said, "White man speak with fork-ed tongue."

It couldn't be that the pollsters' methods of identifying actual Dem voters were flawed, because that's never happened before. It couldn't be that a large portion of the New Hampshire electorate ares independents, who could choose which party's primary to vote in up to the time they were handed a ballot. And it couldn't be that the blowhards stayed away from the Granite State (like Matthews) or stayed in their luxury suites, engaging in alcohol-fueled circle jerks with failed campaign consultants and substituting the counting of heads at rallies for speaking with potential voters.

While citing "the Bradley effect" allows dolts like Matthews to pose as scholars of American politics, it actually shows their superficiality. Senator Obama was trailing Senator Clinton in N.H. pre-Iowa, although he was closing the gap in December. So how did the pollsters manage to locate all the frightened whiteys in the closing days of the campaign? (Or was there a surge of frightened whiteys when Obama came to the state and stole their dates?)

It's not that I believe racist whites don't lie about their beliefs when it's advantageous to do so. Hell, some of them even denounce their old newsletters. But no one could seriously believe that choosing one of other Dems over Obama would reveal their otherwise hidden bigotry.

Meanwhile, on FOX News, the channel's post-election analysis consisted of Sean Hannity pimping Dick Morris' website and anti-Hillary DVD. And Senator Clinton still appeared on their morning show.

Update: Bob Somerby also debunks the application of the Bradley effect to yesterday's primary. I guess "Bradley effect" is easier to pronounce than "I'm a highly-paid fraud."